Edinburgh 2014: 68th EIFF programme preview

Edinburgh Film Festival Artistic Director Chris Fujiwara has announced the full programme for this year’s 68th incarnation. Boasting 156 features from 47 countries, highlights include the UK premiere of Control and The American director Anton Corbijn’s A Most Wanted Man (featuring one of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s final performances), Gia Coppola’s James Franco-starring Palo Alto and, fresh from its debut in Cannes, Abel Ferrara’s Dominique Strauss-Kahn-inspired Welcome to New York. From closer to home comes Gillies MacKinnon’s Castles in the Sky, the story of the Scottish engineer and developer of radar Robert Watson-Watt (Eddie Izzard) as well as Andy Goddard’s Set Fire to the Stars, a semi-biographical drama depicting the life of Dylan Thomas.

A firm favourite of this parish, Anthony Baxter’s You’ve Been Trumped (2011) was an impassioned attack upon American property developer Donald Trump’s incursion into Scotland, so we’re certainly looking forward to the Scottish premiere of his follow-up, A Dangerous Game. There’s also a fine smattering of past festival favourites finally making their way to our shores, including Dietrich Brüggemann’s Berlin hit Stations of the Cross (in UK cinemas later this year), Jim Mickle’s revenge thriller Cold in July, Bong Joon-ho’s futuristic thriller Snowpiercer and Taiwanese master Tsai Ming-liang’s Stray Dogs, as well as new films from Wang Bing, Dominik Graf and Wim Wenders. As previously revealed, Gerard Johnson’s Hyena will open, with Simon Helberg rom-com We’ll Never Have Paris Closing Gala.

On the EIFF 2014 programme announcement, Fujiwara had this to say: “A film festival must keep trying to remain challenging, provocative and responsive, and I believe the programme we’re unveiling today shows our success at doing that this year. It’s a diverse and artistically strong programme that will delight and surprise our audiences, both old and new, and that will reward those who share our passion for exploring cinema in all its forms.”Established in 1947, the Edinburgh International Film Festival is renowned around the world for discovering and promoting the very best in international cinema – and for heralding and debating changes in global filmmaking. Intimate in its scale, ambitious in its scope, and fuelled by pure passion for cinema in all its manifestations, EIFF seeks to spotlight the most exciting and innovative new film talent, in a setting steeped in history.The 68th Edinburgh Film Festival takes place from 18-29 June 2014. For more of our EIFF coverage, follow this link.